By Ismail Aniemu
The Nigeria Customs Service is set to engage Customs administration of Benin Republic to explore technology aided border solutions to promote trade , security and integration
This hint was given on Tuesday by the Acting Comptroller General of the Nigeria Customs Service, Adewale Adeniy after a visit to President Boa Tinubu
Adeniyi said he will be visiting the customs administration of the neighbour country to discuss issues concerning trade across the border, security and related matters.
“I will be paying an official visit to the Republic of Benin, to have discussions with the Customs Administration of Benin to address the issues of border security, importation across the border, and more importantly, the deployment of technological solutions to very complex border problems,” he added.
While congratulating the Nigerian President on his recent appointment as the Chairman of the Economic Community of West African States(ECOWAS), the CGC expressed hope that the President’s appointment will bring better regional integration, cooperation, border security and coordinated monetary affairs in West Africa.
According to him, part of the discussions with President Tinubu is to actively engage Customs administrations across the borders, particularly the strategic ones and collaborate to achieve common objectives of border security and regional integration.
“Mr President is a very good listener. We had discussions regarding what Customs can bring to the table, in terms of actualizing the vision of renewed hope for Nigeria, bridging the gaps in revenue generation, enforcement strategies, and most importantly, promoting port efficiency and competitiveness.”
The Acting Comptroller-General of Customs also assured of a pragmatic move towards decongestion of Nigerian ports to enhance revenue generation, facilitation of legitimate trade and suppression of smuggling.
“I am sure you are very familiar with the Presidential Advisory Council and there is a document which has been made public. Our discussions also centre around aligning the vision of Customs, the activities of Customs in short, medium and long terms with those nobles objectives set out in PAC documents,” he noted.
Addressing the rumour of integrating government agencies, Adewale said he is not privy to any information about that yet and further explained that, though there is a common base between all the agencies that are generating revenue for the Country and there are some cross-cutting issues.
“There are some areas where we overlap and there are some areas where we can complement each other but in terms of bringing the agencies together under one organization, we are yet to get details of that and we will be waiting to get the details and see how that pans out,” he noted.
He further explained the ongoing processes to review the current situation against the objective of the border closure itself with the assurance that when the borders are reopened, it is not going to be the subject of rumour in any way.
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